Three games were played tonight, one in each period. In the first, we saw the Canadian team we had seen throughout the tournament: a powerhouse, offensively capable and much too busy threatening to allow opportunities against. In the second we saw relatively boring hockey, punctuated by the occasional flurry.

Finally, in the third period, we saw either one of the greatest come-from-behind events in tournament history, or one of the greatest collapses.

The stars shone for Canada early on. Nashville prospect (and team captain) Ryan Ellis was in fine form in both ends, a performance best exemplified by one shift midway through the first period where Ellis stymied multiple Russians behind their own net, moving at will and retaining the puck despite their ineffective efforts to stop him.

Brayden Schenn tied Dale McCourt’s record as the highest-scoring Canadian player in a single tournament, first setting up an Ellis goal with the man advantage and then converting on a beautiful cross-ice pass in his own right. Mark Visentin handled the puck with aplomb and turned aside everything directed at him.

Scoring chances piled up, from a variety of players: a Kassian backhand here, a Johansen deflection there. Along the way, Carter Ashton scored a truly remarkable goal with almost no space at all.

Things started to turn in the second period, as Canada’s dominance gave way to more tentative play. Ryan Ellis fell into the boards awkwardly and struggled through the remainder of his shift; he would return but stopped being the difference maker he had been early on, though of course it is hard to determine whether that was a consequence of the injury or whether he simply slowed along with the rest of the team.

The power play, so effective in the first period, struggled to generate chances. Mark Visentin was called upon to stop a shorthanded breakaway. Still, despite the disappearance of Canadian dominance, the Russians were unable to seize the game themselves. Things still appeared relatively calm, and when Russian star Vladimir Tarasenko took a skate to the head while trying to poke the puck out of his own end - staying down for some time - it was easy to think the Russians wouldn’t wake up, or wouldn’t be able to do much even if they did.

Then things went sideways in the third. In a 13-second span, Visnetin surrendered two goals while veteran defencemen (Cowen in the first instance, Ellis in the second) watched impotently. The Russians poured the pressure on, skating the puck into the Canadian end where they’d struggled to clear their own zone previously. Finally, Yevgeni Kuznetsov made a brilliant pass despite tight checking that found the stick of Tarasenko.

In front of Tarasenko, defenceman Jared Cowen was caught flat-footed and he did all he had time for – dropped to the ice to block the shot. Tarasenko had the puck off his stick and behind Visentin before Cowen hit the ice. Canadian coach Dave Cameron, who had elected not to use his time-out when the score was 3-2, used it then to calm down his charges, though to little avail.

Time passed, and as the third period approached its final quarter, Canadian forward Louis LeBlanc made an unfortunate choice, dumping the puck into the offensive zone from the wrong side of centre ice. The fourth line was forced back to their own end, where they found themselves unable to clear.

Errors abounded; even the normally solid Erik Gudbranson coughed up the puck to the opposition. The fourth line, along with Gudbranson and Simon Despres, never cleared the zone but instead watched the Russians score the go-ahead goal.

The minutes ticked down, and the Canadians found themselves painfully unable to replicate their early-game success. They began taking more chances, attempting to tie things up before the clock ran out. Those efforts ended in disaster, as the puck came out of the offensive zone.

Tyson Barrie, who had made a spectacular diving poke check earlier in the game, desperately tried to make it back but couldn’t close the gap with Russian Nikita Dvurechenski. Dvurechenski had no trouble putting the insurance marker past the clearly rattled Visentin, and Canada’s three goal lead had become a two-goal deficit.

The uncontainable jubilation on the Russian bench started even before the final seconds ran out on the clock, and stood in stark contrast to the reaction of the Canadian players. This is a team doomed to be remembered as a failure, this game as one of the worst collapses in Canadian hockey history, but there could be no doubting the desire of the players involved.

Anger, sadness, devestation, bitterness: to a man, the players sporting Canada’s colours reflected some mixture of those emotions. I saw a group of very young men crushed, because they failed to live up to the lofty expectations inherent to the Team Canada jersey.

And that’s what I’ll remember. These players gave their best, but still lost to a talented - though almost certainly inferior foe. There was no failure of will, no loss of desire, nothing save perhaps a complacency bred of excellence, followed by desperation as things went south, both of which led to a series of on-ice errors. Despite those errors, I can’t help but feel empathy for this team, and a hope that fans don’t condemn them too severely.

Besides, our condemnation can’t possibly compare to that inflicted by those players upon themselves.

Jonathan Willis is a freelance writer.
He currently works for Oilers Nation, Sportsnet, the Edmonton Journal and Bleacher Report.
He's co-written three books and worked for myriad websites, including Grantland, ESPN, The Score, and Hockey Prospectus. He was previously the founder and managing editor of Copper & Blue.

I apologize for droning on about one point, as I also brought this up in the previous thread - however I am amazed at the references to the classless Canadian "players" who refused to accept or wear the silver medal. What I saw - and please tell me if I am wrong - was the first guy, Ryan Ellis go through the line with his helmet on. When he went to receive the medal he and the presenter both realized it would not fit over the old brain bucket, he simply took it in his hand and, I assume, put in on a moment later, as the next image of him on TSN showed the medal around his neck. The group that followed Ellis saw the somewhat awkward exchange of their captain, shed their helmets and sombrely and respectfully received their medals.
The fact that Pierre "peni$ with ears" Maguire incorrectly stated that "Ellis doesn't want to put on the silver" or words to that effect, caused a couple of sheep / posters on this site to chastise the "classless Canadian players" for not accepting the silver. I suppose it is your "right" to pile on young men who have dedicated a good part of their life to something and were able to achieve a goal precious few of us will, to represent their country. But please at least get the facts right before doing it. I personally will reserve the term "classless" for people who feel the need to kick folks when they are down.

First, the Canadian fans at the game. Couple of times during the game they were chanting "WE WANT THE CUP" and "WE WANT THE GOLD".
Who are we? Not me. But them, who are they? Who are they that they feel the deserve the gold, the cup? I'm glad they didn't get it, that was just stupid of them to chant that.

Second. The Russians players yelling "KANATA" into the cameras after the game was pure comedy, hilarious.

Third and so on. Why don't the Canadian media want to give the Russians credit? There was no big errors by the Canadian players and team in the third, they simply got beat by a better team and players on all the third period goals. I dont understand all this hype and pride over this tournament. It is just a bunch of kids playing hockey. Why do people act and perceive it like it something important? It is just some young kids playing in a hockey tournament. You'll live, Grow up.

If this tournament means so much to them, it is pretty classless of the Canadian players not to put on their medals.

First, the Canadian fans at the game. Couple of times during the game they were chanting "WE WANT THE CUP" and "WE WANT THE GOLD".
Who are we? Not me. But them, who are they? Who are they that they feel the deserve the gold, the cup? I'm glad they didn't get it, that was just stupid of them to chant that.

Second. The Russians players yelling "KANATA" into the cameras after the game was pure comedy, hilarious.

Third and so on. Why don't the Canadian media want to give the Russians credit? There was no big errors by the Canadian players and team in the third, they simply got beat by a better team and players on all the third period goals. I dont understand all this hype and pride over this tournament. It is just a bunch of kids playing hockey. Why do people act and perceive it like it something important? It is just some young kids playing in a hockey tournament. You'll live, Grow up.

If this tournament means so much to them, it is pretty classless of the Canadian players not to put on their medals.

...you suck the fun out of losing this way...i'll be over here growing up.

I think we did pretty well. We all knew there were a couple question marks going into this tournament, goaltending as well as the forwards were iffy at best. To make it to the gold metal game is actually pretty good consideriing the issues we had.

These players are 18 years old still playing JR. what do we expect...gold we all want our boys to win and show the world we are the best but are we not watching a team in Edmonton that can't put a 60 min effort together yet and there are vets on this team. I think we put alot of pressure on our young boys when there are other good teams in the tourny, just think 10 straight years in the gold medal game can any other country say that. It's to bad but congrats for making the gold medal game 10 straight years.

@ Oilganization Kip: what was wrong with the fans chanting that? Surely its a good thing that these kids know their country is supporting them, and will make them even more passionate, leading to them having more passion if and when they eventually play in tournaments such as the WCs and the Olympics when older? Nothing wrong with a bit of national pride. Should the crowd have kept quiet, and hushed someone every time they took a sip from their beer? Or maybe they should have been more specific and chanted, "WE, THE CANADIAN FANS, WOULD LIKE THE CANADIAN TEAM TO WIN, NOT FOR US BUT FOR THEM BECAUSE WE LIKE FOR THEM TO FEEL GOOD ABOUT THEMSELVES". Quite a ring to it, no?

I agree that the media should give the Russians credit, that was a hell of a comeback.

If you don't understand the hype/pride of the tournament, why watch it? If it is "just a bunch of kids playing hockey", how is that different from "just a bunch of guys in their 20s and 30s playing hockey"? A lot of these kids are the future of the NHL and the national teams, and what with most of them being 18 and older I would actually class them as young men, rather than kids.

Absolutely nothing wrong, as I said above, with a country getting behind its team, even if it's not the "senior" team. You're right that it's not the be-all and end-all of everything, no hockey game (or even any sports game) is, but I see no problem with having passion about the tournament. It's good for the game, good for the players to experience, and good to watch.

As an Oilers fan, which I assume you are, are you telling me that you didn't jump for joy 2 years ago when Eberle scored against the Russians with seconds to go? Or that you didn't do the same last year when he scored 2 goals in the last couple of minutes? Thats what the tournament is great for, following the young players on their journey to stardom, even if you're only interested in Oilers property, but you're still cheering for the National team at the end of the day. Your post sounds to me like a case of someone who is disappointed with the Canadian performance and wants to distance themselves from it.

This is my opinion, and you're entitled to yours, but I'm simply curious as to why you lambast people over enjoying a great tournament.

All the Canada hype, we are the best hype, was leaving a sour taste in my mouth. This is the very reason we turn our noses at people chanting USA when their dream team slaughters another.

The loss was good for international hockey, and good for egos. I watched the replay from the second intermission on again, and it was nice to hear how the TSN crew were all but certain it was game over... "Canada is not Finland" was my favorite line

Let's enjoy the losses, it makes us appreciate the wins.

Now everyone give it up to the cardiac kids from Russia. Those last three games of theirs were outstanding.

...you suck the fun out of losing this way...i'll be over here growing up.

I heard it on the radio this morning and it pretty much sums it up: "Canada does not have a monopoly on heart"...kudos to the Russian kids who never folded the tents.
Now - that said, I blame coaching...not because I think the coaches weren't any good, quite the opposite. I was impressed on how they prepped specific game plans to their opponents throughout the tournament, but everyone KNEW Russia's game was a big push in the third. How do you not prepare the team for that? How does Team Canada come out flat in the third period, when they had to KNOW Russia would be their best coming into the final 20? They did it all tournament.
Good tourney anyway Canada - you exceeded many expectations and played hard. And Kudos to the fans who flocked across the border to support our representatives at the WJC! Cant wait till it comes home to Calgary next year!

You can pick apart the game all you want. It atarts with mental focus and it just wasn't there. It's like watching an NHL team beat it's arch-rival in the 3rd round and then collapse in the final. This team was built specifically to beat the USA and that was the entire focus of the tounrament for them and when they did it, well, mission accomplished.

Let it be a lesson: you build and prepare a team to win it all, not just to beat single opponent.

I'll agree with you on hype and pride, but I don't think this Russian team was in fact superior to the Canadian entry. Certainly, they came back to earn the win last night, and are thus deserving gold medalists, but this was a game Canada should have had in the bag.

As for specific errors, they were there: Visentin was not sharp, the defence was giveaway-prone in the third and in a few cases made coverage mistakes, and in several cases forwards made mistakes as well that contributed to goals.

If we were a shoe-in to win, it wouldn't be worth watching......isn't it enough we've been to the final for the last ten years. There is a reason why those other teams are there...they can play hockey too!

The momentum shifted with the changing of the Russian goalie in the second, from there it seemed like Canada stopped playing the game along the wall and allowed Russia to dictate the play.

Whether it was lack of focus or lack of killer instinct on the part of this team whohad a chance to bury their opponents.......when you are up 3-0 with 20 to go.......silver sucks and the blame rests solely at the skates of the players.

I agree that coaching is to blame in this situation. If you're Dave Cameron, you should have a projector set up in the second intermission showing clips from Russia coming back against Finland and Sweden. The kids came out complacent, and that's coaching.

Before I offer up a few random thoughts about last night’s game, let me preface them by saying that I was shocked by Russia’s surge/Canada’s collapse in the third period. I really thought Canada had it won and that it was yet-another fold-up job by Russia through two periods.

Otherwise...
- In hindsight, Canada was probably pretty lucky to have made the final. That team had a LOT of grinders on it. In that third period last night, they just got blown away by a wave of skill. The Russians were clearly the most talented team in the tournament and when they finally got their act together, they were the best team in the tournament.

- I never paid much attention to the Buffalo Sabres before, but it’s quite clear to me that, as a franchise, they’ve lived a charmed life. I read somewhere once that one of the reasons why they got the franchise was because there were thousands of Canadian hockey fans who were willing to drive in winter road conditions and go through two sets of Customs officials to get to 40 NHL games in Buffalo. Until this tournament, I never really believed it could be enough to carry a franchise. Apparently, it’s true. Hamilton’s got a team, all right. It’s in Buffalo.

- Can you imagine how different this tournament had been if Brayden Schenn was in the NHL right now? Canada would have been awful because none of their other forwards looked capable of carrying an offensive load. When Ashton scored his first goal of the tournament last night, the TSN noted that he was the 15th or 16th or whatever-Canadian player to score in the tournament. Optimists would say that means Canadian had lots of “scoring balance” or “depth.” Cynics would suggest that Canada had way too many players with two goals or less.

- For the past couple of years, Oiler fans have watched their prospects (Hall, Eberle) assume dominant, prominent roles at the WJC to the point where they’ve used it as a springboard to their pro careers. Olivier Roy will be the exact opposite. He will need to overcome his WJC experience in his pro career. That’s not fair, but that’s the way it will be seen in the media. Quite an interesting contrast between him and Eberle. One shone in the limelight, the other wilted.

- Wasn’t Brett Connolly supposed to be the steal of last year’s draft – a guy who, if he hadn’t been hurt, might have pushed Hall/Seguin for No. 1? Did he play this year? What number was he?

- Hope you had a good look at guys like Couturier (sp?) and Larsson because you won’t be seeing them in Oiler (or NHL) sweaters next year. None of the top prospects for the 2012 draft who played in this tournament look NHL-ready for next year. That’s OK – there’s nothing wrong with that. As Bob McKenzie has reminded us for the last 25 or so WJCs, it’s a tournament for 19-year-olds, not 17-year-olds. However, it’s pretty obvious that this year’s draft – at least in terms of impact players – has a clear drop-off compared to previous years. Again, nothing wrong with that. But if you were thinking of pencilling in Couturier between Hall and Eberle next year, you might be off by a year or two.

- Still, next year’s WJC tournament will be an intriguing one for Oiler fans, mostly because their top pick from this June is almost certainly gonna be in that tournament, front and centre. Also, expect Hamilton to be there and, perhaps, Pitlick.

- Haven’t made my mind up on Anton Lander, but I saw some flashes that suggest he could play in the NHL. He looks to be a Thomas Steen-type, which would be excellent. Then again, we also said the same thing about Mats Lindgren.

- Will someone please tell the TSN people to tell the Gatorade people that we get it? When you sweat, your body loses fluids. You get thirsty. You need to replace them. I think this has been about five straight years of the same commercial, starring the same researcher from the University of Guelph, uttering the same corporate-scientific tripe, with the same testimonials from selected Team Canada players. All this for electrolyte-infused sugar-water (if you ever want to see a hilarious take on Gatorade’s impact on our nutritional culture, watch Idiocracy. It’s awesome). Just once, I’d like to see someone do a commercial for the garden-hose-water we all drank when we played ball hockey as kids.

Kudos to the Russian kids.
If you don't put the metal on, you should be banned from playing in this tournament. A disrespect for sportsmanship should have a price attached to it.
Cockieness sometimes has shame attached to it. And that's a good thing. It helps you respect others.

Lander:
After his comments, do you think he really wants to play anywhere in canada? I personally think he absolutely hates this nation.

As for collapses, I been watching the Oilers do that for the past numerous years. I think I've learned to acept it.

Kudos to the Russian kids.
If you don't put the metal on, you should be banned from playing in this tournament. A disrespect for sportsmanship should have a price attached to it.
Cockieness sometimes has shame attached to it. And that's a good thing. It helps you respect others.

Lander:
After his comments, do you think he really wants to play anywhere in canada? I personally think he absolutely hates this nation.

As for collapses, I been watching the Oilers do that for the past numerous years. I think I've learned to acept it.

I didn't see enough of Sweden to form a solid impression of Lander, but I was impressed iwth Hamilton.

JW - I just saw the last 2 games, and (despite scoring) I thought Hamilton stood out as being overall ineffective. He seemed to generate little, didn't have the speed of others, and the play often died with him. I can't recall many chances for his linemates coming from his stick

Were our Women's Gold Medals tarnished after they were drinking and celebrating on the ice in Vancouver? Not really.

I think this can be chaulked up to "boys will be boys". I guess it might depend on how "unruly" they were being.

Fair enough, that's kinda why I qualified it with a "slightly".
EDIT: I will say though, having a beer or two on the ice immediately after the victory is less drastic than being escorted off of a plane due to being drunk.

My hangover feels 10 times worse today. Its hard to even fathom what happened, but thats the thing about momentum. We needed a big save or a big hit and didn't get it. I was hoping the russians were like the Oilers, tie it a 3 then lose!

I apologize for droning on about one point, as I also brought this up in the previous thread - however I am amazed at the references to the classless Canadian "players" who refused to accept or wear the silver medal. What I saw - and please tell me if I am wrong - was the first guy, Ryan Ellis go through the line with his helmet on. When he went to receive the medal he and the presenter both realized it would not fit over the old brain bucket, he simply took it in his hand and, I assume, put in on a moment later, as the next image of him on TSN showed the medal around his neck. The group that followed Ellis saw the somewhat awkward exchange of their captain, shed their helmets and sombrely and respectfully received their medals.
The fact that Pierre "peni$ with ears" Maguire incorrectly stated that "Ellis doesn't want to put on the silver" or words to that effect, caused a couple of sheep / posters on this site to chastise the "classless Canadian players" for not accepting the silver. I suppose it is your "right" to pile on young men who have dedicated a good part of their life to something and were able to achieve a goal precious few of us will, to represent their country. But please at least get the facts right before doing it. I personally will reserve the term "classless" for people who feel the need to kick folks when they are down.

That was the way that I saw that whole medal thing go down too - I though Pierre was premature in saying that Ellis didn't want to put it on. It just looked like an awkward hand-off to me.

Blaming this on coaching is letting the players off easy. They choked. Plain and simple. Does anyone really believe Dave Cameron didn't tell his players the Russians would push back, and they couldn't let off the gas??? Everyone and their dog could see we just sat back and thought we had it after 40 minutes. The Russians deserve a lot of credit for the way they kept coming back. Not just the Gold medal game, but in the semis and quarters as well. Kudos to them and here's hoping Team Canada can come back and give us something to cheer about when they rock Rexall next year.

It was one of the greatest comebacks I have ever seen in my life of hockey watching. Kudos to the Russians, they played their asses off in the 3rd period of the last 3 elimination games.

When the pro canadian crowd started chanting "we want gold" in the first period it reminded me of 06 when we started chanting "we want the cup" in the Anaheim series...

As much as it hurts to lose, the irony in all the gatorade & nike commercials is hillarious. All the boys were drinking gatorade so that they would have extra energy in the 3rd period. Guess they forgot to drink any in the 2nd intermission?!?!?

The nike training commercial too, guess Jr Schenn will never be as good as his Big brother Luke. When Pierre did his half hearted BOOM! moment you knew the writing was on the wall. It sure didn't take them long to make the new slogan of Tommorrow starts Today.

An epic failure all around, it will be one of those games that nobody who witnessed it will ever forget.

Lander looked like a good face off winning two way center and could be here next year.

I also wasn't that impressed with Hamilton, but I think he was actually playing the way his coach was telling him to. He was the defensive forward on his line. It looked like to me that he was the forward who was supposed to stay high on the forecheck. Just my opinion.

I think Roy was the better choice for net. I don't think either goalie was good enough though.

I still believe that Sweden was the best team in this tourney. They had goalie trouble as well.

Crap happens , and we ran into a stretch in the third period where we seemed to play kitty bar the door hockey and fell victim to it . We just could not get momentum back after a second easy goal went in on us . I was in a game where we we up 5-0 going into the third period against an inferior team . We wanted to run it up to 10 if we could . We didn't back off , nothing changed but the score and our goalie who couln't seem to stop a beachball in the third . By the ten minute mark we were down 6-5 , and that ended up being the final score thanks to their goalies incredible saves over last ten minutes . Everything they did for ten minutes came up roses for them , puck luck and poor goaltending can do that occasionally . Maybe we should have changed goalies after the second goal ? Momentum can be fleeting and disasterous for those who lose it . What a hollow feeling the players must be feeling .

- Yep, those damn Gatorade commercials are/were unbearable. I seriously don't want to drink that crap just because of the overplay of commercials.

- The Russians are an extremely homely bunch who love the camera. Every time one of them oaf's shoved their toothless face into the camera screaming some gibberish my wife would recoil in disgust and fear and said "damn, those guys are ugly!".

- Even the Russian coaches are homely. And they can't figure out how to wear a ball cap or how to fit it on their fat head. Either way I got a decent laugh looking at the coach with his cap perched on the crown of his head with the tags showing in the back.

- Pierre McGuire and his "explosion" off the stick or "erupts" with a flurry references are starting to creep me out.

- Bobkov made Scotty Bowman look like a Roloff when got his POTG trophy.

- I used to work with a hot waitress (this was about 10 years ago) who told me that her and her friend lured (a TSN guy, not PM) to a hotel room in Edmonton with the promise of good times only to get him naked and them to leave him and high and dry. I still feel sorry for the guy.

Be the FIST to think of an idea that's different, funny, not old, tired and beaten like a dead horse. I just zoom past comments here. For those of you that what to actually have discussions there's another board, but I'll keep it on the LOWE down for now, and maybe some of the fine folks can discuss articles written here, over there. FIST really gets to me apparently.